Lee Jaffe – författare

In 1973 young artist and filmmaker Lee Jaffe met Bob Marley in New York City and within hours cemented a friendship that would see Jaffe becoming a "Wailer" right down (or up) to his dreadlocks. While Marley was well known in Jamaica, he was little known in the rest of the world. Jaffe witnessed Marley's life and increasing fame during those years. He helped organize Marley's first American tour and played reggae with the Wailers throughout Jamaica. He learned Rastafarian ways. And he took wonderful, candid photographs of the many colorful characters who moved through Bob's world. This book, with the photographs and Jaffe's account of those exciting years, is a lens through which we have an intimate view of the young Marley. Jaffe's recollections of life with Marley are little diminished by time. Indeed, they are as colorful as the photographs, and as revealing. 120 four-color photographs.

Lee Jaffe is a cross-disciplinary visual artist, musician and poet who captured extremely intimate photographs of Bob Marley and The Wailers during the last three years that they performed together. After their initial introduction in their mutual friend Chris Blackwell s room at Hotel Chelsea, Jaffe went on to forge a close creative partnership and friendship with Marley and eventually lived with him and his wife Rita in Jamaica. Jaffe, a first-hand witness to the birth of reggae music, had the opportunity to perform on stage and in the studio with Marley and his band and travel extensively with them through rural Jamaica, London, Los Angeles, and New York. All the while, Jaffe was consistently capturing portraits that offer an intimate view of the lives of these legendary performers, revealing both their struggles and successes. Jaffe s photographs accompanied by his first-person accounts and stories provide a behind-the-scenes look at one of music s generational greats and allow the viewer to be witness to some of Marley s most defining moments. The book will feature many never-before-seen photographs by Lee Jaffe accompanied by text.

Lee Jaffe, a cross-disciplinary visual artist, musician, and poet, took photos of his friend, Jean-Michel Basquiat, when they travelled abroad in 1983. As a photographer, Jaffe had a connection to Basquiat, and their time spent together resulted in an archive of imagery that captured one of the art world s true legends through an unfiltered and authentic lens. Basquiat and Jaffe connected over reggae music at a mutual friend s art show. It was the early 1980s in New York, when the art scene was raw, complicated, and thriving, and Jaffe cultivated strong connections with cultural figures such as Basquiat, Bob Marley, and Peter Tosh. For me, watching him [ Jean] paint reminded me of the times I would sit and play harmonica while Bob Marley, with his acoustic guitar, would be writing songs that were eventually to become classics, Jaffe says. With Jean and Bob, it seemed like they were channelling inspiration coming from an otherworldly place. This beautiful volume presents snapshots of Basquiat: from the artist smiling on a bullet train to Kyoto and behind-the-scenes documentation of Basquiat creating artwork in St. Moritz, to poignant portraits that mirror his undeniable magnetism. These rare depictions of Basquiat come to life with Jaffe s unforgettable experiences of their friendship, collaborations, and travels detailed in private written memories and anecdotes. This insightful and moving illustrated volume captures the soul of the unedited, ambitious, young artist during the height of his short yet unprecedented artistic career.